Featured Guests
Sveinung Bjelland, pianist, Norway
Sveinung Bjelland is one of Norway’s leading classical pianists. His recording of Scarlatti and Mendelssohn sonatas received international acclaim and was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy Award. It was followed by numerous albums, including a celebrated recording of concertos by Chopin and Schumann in 2018. He studied with Professor Hans Leygraf at Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Bjelland has since then been much in demand, both as a concert soloist and as a chamber musician throughout the world. He has also collaborated closely with the German tenor Daniel Behle for many years, performing in prestigious halls in London, Berlin, Vienna, Lucerne, Paris, Munich and Frankfurt. Sveinung is professor of piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the University of Agder in Kristiansand.
Jan Capiński, Capinski Recordings, United Kingdom
Jan trained as a singer and sustained a freelance operatic career in the UK before transitioning to full-time audio and video production. As a recording engineer and videographer he has worked for the Royal Ballet & Opera (formerly ROH), English National Opera, Garsington Opera, English Touring Opera, and the award-winning VOPERA film of Ravel’s ‘L’enfant et les sortilèges’. He also co-founded and co-runs London Recording Days – a collective of freelancers providing drop-in recording days for classical singers. Jan produces audition tapes and video demos for 250-300 singers each year, as well as commercial recordings of classical chamber music. He has delivered workshops on the basics of recording for the Royal Academy of Music and is scheduled to be a guest speaker on the same subject at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Nicholas Carter, General Music Director Designate Staatsoper Stuttgart & Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Germany
Nicholas Carter, the newly appointed Music Director of the Staatsoper and Staatsorchester Stuttgart from the 2026/27 season, has emerged as one of the most riveting opera conductors, acclaimed for his arresting presence in the pit. His distinguished artistic versatility has earned him a reputation as a perceptive interpreter of opera, ranging from Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Strauss to Russian and French repertoire, encompassing as far as music dramas of Britten and contemporary composers such as Brett Dean. Equally sought-after in the concert hall, Carter conducts wide breadth of symphonic repertoire and maintains regular collaborations with leading international orchestras.
Olesya Tutova, pianist, Norway
Olesya Tutova is a pianist, professor and Head of Music at the Opera Academy in Oslo. She graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and become a prize-winner of several international music competitions.
Olesya has participated in Aix-en-provence Opera festival (France), Savonlinna Opera festival (Finland), Festival ‘Veranos de la villa de Madrid’ (Spain), Saaremaa Opera Festival (Estonia), ‘Prahova Classic Nights’ Festival (Romania), Festival of Contemporary Music (Poland), Xanten Opera Festival (Germany), 58th Wiltz Opera Festival (Luxembourg), and collaborated with Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico in Madrid, Warsaw National Opera, Wrocław Opera and Kraków Philharmonic in Poland.
Rebecka Wallroth, mezzo-soprano, Sweden
Rebecka Wallroth won a Finalist Prize in the Queen Sonja Singing Competition 2023. With a repertoire spanning from baroque to contemporary, the young Swedish mezzo-soprano is attracting increasing international attention. Rebecka is part of the International Opera Studio at Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where she has sung Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Cretan woman in Idomeneo, Second Handmaiden of Dircé in Cherubini’s Medea, and Auntie in Jenůfa. The upcoming season at Staatsoper Berlin will include Cherubino, Mercedes in Carmen, and Carlotta in Die schweigsame Frau.
Rebecka studied at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (MDW). She has been awarded scholarships from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Sandrews Foundation and Anny Felbermayer Foundation and she received the 2022 Joel Berglund-scholarship from the Royal Swedish Opera soloists in Stockholm.
Anette Weber, Director of Opera; Opernhaus Zürich, Switzerland
Annette Weber studied theatre and musicology in Mainz, gaining experience as an Assistant Director at the same time, and was engaged at the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe until 2004. She then held the same position at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin until 2010.
Between 2010 and 2016, she worked regularly with Stefan Herheim in Berlin, Bayreuth and Salzburg, among other places. From 2013 to 2018, she worked as a consultant for the Artistic Administrative Director of the Semperoper Dresden, where she was responsible for artistic affairs and casting. In 2018 she became Casting Director of Staatsoper Hamburg. Weber has been the Opera Director of Opernhaus Zürich since 2021.
Jasmin White, contralto, USA
In 2023, White won first place in the Queen Sonja Singing Competition in Norway and second place and the audience-awarded Musiq3 Prize of the Public in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. From 2022-24, White completed two years of training in the Opernstudio at Volksoper Wien, singing roles such as Martha in The Gospel According to the Other Mary by John Adams, Mary in Der fliegende Holländer, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and Frau Reich in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor.
During this time, White also debuted at Dutch National Opera as The Historian in the world premiere of The Shell Trial, Teatro dell’opera di Roma as Erste Geist in Schumann’s Manfred, as the mezzo soloist in John Adams’ El Niño with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and American Modern Opera Company, and in multiple concert halls across South Korea for the Queen Elisabeth Competition Winners Recital Tour.